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User blog:Deadcoder/Deadcoder's Reviews: Contact
This review is sort of being done at the request of User:Eddieblake. He initially requested that I review Revelation, but since they're on the same DVD, I figured I would do Contact as well. My scoring system is simple: 10 - 0 with 10 being amazing, and 0 being Melanie Tran's acting. My review is, as usual, based on the English dub. This review is a little racier than some, and may not be appropriate for all readers. However, it doesn't violate our content rules, since it's only directly listing what happens in the show in a satirical tone. If you are immature, easily disturbed, or suffer from certain forms of trauma, you should probably not read this review. That warning out of the way, I SHALL BEGIN! =The Review= "Contact" starts off with Jeremie being frustrated at his programming incompetence, and Ulrich and Yumi show up to tell him about Odd's latest film. This scene has two issues: first, Yumi and Ulrich were just alone together, YET WE SEE NO OBVIOUS AWKWARDNESS! This is in conflict with their established behavior. Second, Odd is Lyoko Warrior. How on earth does he have time to make bad films, especially since we don't even see him work on a single one? We then see Sissi being self-absorbed in an interview, as Milly and Tamiya interview her. Everyone enters the room to see the film. Gustave Chardin is announcing the film, while sounding like his usual french stereotype. This is actually funny because of France's love of the arts. Amazingly, despite being a French film aficionado, he doesn't make any reference to any films with a 20 minute scene of a guy with a mustache smoking a cigar and drinking at a bar. There's a little 5 second scene with Sissi and Herb where Sissi is insecure, Herb comforts her, and she threatens him. It's minor, but it's a good scene, which is exactly what the French stereotype is ranting about. He also talks about having a shorter timespan, but still making good art, which I think is a good counterargument against people who look down on TV and the Emmys, while looking upward to film and Oscars. This earns a bonus point for managing to make art criticism in a kid's show, and making it interesting. Odd's film parodies the show, complete with Sissi looking bad for poorly-though-out reasons, Odd being hammy, Jim being a responsible authority figure and idiot at the same time, making fun of Sissi, a trip to the Infirmary that's not actually shown, and attack of the 50 foot whatever. We then see it cut off at the climax, in the manner of Garage Kids. Another bonus point, for relentless self-parody. We then see a spectre attack Sissi, we see flashing, she starts to have a seizure "which actually makes sense," and then she starts talking from the Russian dub. We then get an off-screen infirmary trip less than 30 seconds after the show mocked itself for it. The show then breaks our expectations by making this NOT A XANA ATTACK! We then see the creepiest shipping scene ever, with Sissi and Jeremie in their pajamas, with horror movie lighting on Sissi, as she speaks in Russian. Seriously, the lighting is creepy here. She then churns out written bytecode on grid paper. The grid paper is kind of funny, but this is actually brilliant, because only certain programmers can write out encrypted bytecode on the fly. Jim shows up, taking her away, to Jeremie's confusion. We then get an explanatory shot from Jeremie, showing a rare case where the show follows normal laws of computer science, and accurately explains them. Since this is the intellectual episode, a quantum supercomputer is used to break encryption. Bonus point given for actually following normal computer science rules. Aelita then uses calm rational thinking to deduce that it's not X.A.N.A. Yumi then plots to break someone out of a mental hospital, in another cheap shot against the french mental health care system. Odd then implies that the two of them have a Will-&-Grace relationship, to the delight of shippers everywhere. Ulrich then exercises common sense, to make sure this isn't a XANA attack, "which it still might be, since the superscan was written by Jeremie, and will therefore fail." Aelita then decides to go to Lyoko for no reason except her own suicidal whims. Techno music powerup! Despite having Aelita, Ulrich says they won't go crazy. He then speeds away, while Aelita makes the most inappropriate sound in the episode. Considering what comes up later, that's truly saying something. Cue a bunch of recycled footage. We then see Sissi being taken from Yolanda to an actual hospital. We then see Odd and Yumi have another Will&Grace moment. We then see a white tower. I will save my thoughts on this matter for later. Aelita says she wants to see it close up. Before we have time to think about that, two Megatanks show up. The megatanks are about to catch up to them, so we get the Aelita options: :0. Act suicidal and/or crazy. :1. Attack it with a long single note of angry music. :2. Have an argument with it. :3. Use Energy Fields. 3 doesn't get unlocked until season 3. The monsters aren't sentient, so 2 is out, and Sissi goes to a mental hospital in this episode, so 0 would be redundant. 1 it is! and she makes a single note of angry music, creating a side-path. We get a gag about turning off a cliff in the episode though, implying that she's going to do 0 though. Good thinking Aelita! :Aelita: hey, if anything is going to kill me, it's gonna be me! not some crazy, possibly suicidal AI which can't accomplish anything! :Ulrich: umm, Aelita? :Aelita: Ulrich, I can lean over, tip us into the digital sea, and do #0, so don't irritate me. GOT IT?! The two spheroid objects start to attack the long tube with a curly black base, and white stuff at the top. I have to wonder, whose idea was it to make the tower white? I mean, I get that green and red are both out, since they're both already assigned. Blue and teal are also assigned, "which also eliminate purple, due to color similarity." Yellow would be even more disturbing, pink should be saved for Aelita, Orange would be hard to animate, and Black would be a bad idea, since the bottom of the tower is already covered with a mysterious curly black substance. I can see why they chose white, but it's still hilariously inappropriate. Since Odd isn't present, Ulrich is forced to make a bad joke in a life or death situation. And Jeremie points it out. Meanwhile, like everyone else in the show, Sissi goes to a mental hospital, room 237, and XANA finally attacks. Odd uses an EMP attack, which is smart given the show's previous attacks, and since this is France, two unsupervised teenagers are allowed to take a mental patient out of a hospital without anyone noticing. Meanwhile, even though Yumi is perfect for this, Ulrich destroys one of the spheroid things near the tower. Aelita acts completely reckless to save ulrich from a laser. Aelita exibits some rare sanity, and leaves as two more megatanks show up. Meanwhile in the factory, XANA attempts a vehicular homicide. Since this involves a car in a renault factory, it doesn't work, and the vehicle breaks. Having just escaped a french mental hospital, sissi then programs and acts non verbal. Another cheapshot against the french mental healthcare system, complete with textbook Autism behavior. In the ice sector, Aelita is surrounded by krabs, and doesnt' think to use her creativity. At the same time, Ulrich's sword is snapped, after he destoryed a megatank. The tower is hit a few more times, and it's not white anymore. I want to make a joke about Yumi here, but I can't, because she sets a good example in the next scene. In the elevator, Xana in a nurse's body tries to touch Yumi in a bad way, and she kicks the nurse and runs. This applies in multiple ways, from the nurse being from a french mental hospital, to a crazy person trying to touch her boobs without her consent. Yumi is a good role model in this scene, and if any of my readers are ever in either of those situations, I recommend that they follow her example: defend themselves and run. In a further example of what one should do in such situations, Odd sees Aeltia about to be attacked with tentacle rape "with a gang of krabs looking at her," and saves her. Aelita, this would have been a good time to use the single note of angry music, with extra angry. Odd then tells Aelita to run, which is also good advice. Odd then gives Aelita a ride to safety. Since we need to compensate for the good role models, Ulrich just stands there, while Yumi is attacked by a crazy french mental hospital nurse, while Yumi tries not to get touched by her. Ulrich, this is why Yumi broke up with you in season 3. The tower is deactivated and turns blue. After everything else in this episode, even this looks dirty. We then see Yumi and Ulrich smile. This is perhaps the most disturbing shot in the episode. Sissi is back to normal, and rejects her role in Odd's next movie, which is even more parody of Code Lyoko. Jeremie gets the decrypted data from the quantum supercomputer, because this episode is more realistic than usual. It is then revealed: Franz Hopper sent the message. Review Summary This episode had a lot of subtext, half of which was dirty. The episode starts off with self parody, and a feeling of art discussion, with some good character pieces. We get the creepy shipping scene, and a quantum supercomputer being used in a realistic way. From that point on we get a subtle mockery of the french mental healthcare system, and the episode got absurdly dirty. We also get some extremely serious subtext with Yumi and the nurse. The episode's overall rating: 9.5/10. This episode was near perfect. The only flaws I can think of are a few out of character moments, and this: There was an awkward shift from the first half of the episode, an artsy intellectual suspense story, to the second half, which was inappropriate subtext, implications of horrible assault, and even more mockery of france's mental hospitals. That awkward shift, and some character issues got rid of half a point. But even so, this was an amazing episode that advanced the plot, managed to have mature discussion about art, and successfully dealt with serious subjects. Some of the serious subjects were things that even shows like "Law and Order: SVU" can only deal with correctly half the time. "which is saying something, since dealing with serious cases of assault is exactly what that show is for." Category:Blog posts Category:Contact